What's on my mind

I remember my first UX research interview. I was coming straight from academia and had no on-the-job experience in applied research. The hiring manager told me I needed to show the artifacts that resulted from my research. As a pivoting academic at the time, this sounded very mysterious.

What did I create with my research? What was the product that resulted from my insights? I’d never thought about it like that.

I had to show the artifacts because the perception, according to my hiring manager, was that academic researchers don’t actually produce anything - they simply create intangible knowledge. Academic researchers sit in rooms by themselves and think and write and publish and talk to other academics. That’s what they get paid for.

Well, yeah, I thought. I guess that’s true.

For the product people that would join my final interview, that was complete bullshit. Product people make something. Build something tangible. The product. They had no use for someone who could only think and not execute.

So, I would have to prove to them that I, too, produced something with my research expertise.

I thought about it. I prepared my interview presentation and included the requested artifact. I explained my product, which was an academic journal article. Publication is the product, I argued, and they nodded. I pointed to the metrics, and they nodded. They got it, at least enough that I got the job.

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Now that I think back on that experience - what if we were all totally wrong?

What would have happened if I had owned the idea that research is an intangible ingredient? That insights drawn from data collection and analysis are like the baking soda in a cookie - hardly anyone understands why it needs to be there, it tastes bad on its own, but in the end, it creates an evenly-baked cookie that’s deliciously chewy?

(In case you’re not a baker, here’s a brief explanation of what baking soda, a leavening agent, does to cookie dough.)

What if those product leaders, rather than seeing me as a product-building peer, viewed my expertise as a way to upskill their own work? Contribute to the efforts needed to discover and deliver their product, instead of asking me to prove I could do what a product manager does?

Research is now being sold to organizations as an activity whose worth can be measured, on its own.

What if we stop trying to sell research as the cookie, and instead pitch it as the baking soda in the cookie?

Perhaps our product stakeholders would see us as less of a threat and more of a collaborator. As less of a gatekeeper and more of a facilitator. After all, we aren’t coming into companies to take over ownership of products. Like the baking soda, we are joining with other ingredients to enhance the work already in progress.

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Video: Let's talk research and product collaboration

Recently I chatted with Anshul Divakar, the CEO of getCurious, about research and product management.

In the conversation we cover:

• the importance of collaboration between researchers and product teams, and how this synergy can enhance product development
• how researchers can more effectively collaborate with product managers, and vice versa
• potential role shifts and the dynamic between research and product management in the evolving tech landscape

How do you see research and product in future collaboration? Have a listen, and let me know what you think!

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